It was with great interest that I read this post at the Talking Points Memo about the inability of the management of Powerline to name any Bush Administration official that has been implicated in any scandal of note with the exception of Scooter Libby. TPM, of course, provided a list previously compiled with the help of their readers of administration officials rocked by scandal (either indicted or convicted). What got me thinking tonight was the comments on the original Powerline blog entry and the amazing amount of either sheer ignorance or willful self-deception that is perpetrated by many Republicans/conservatives just to make sense of the world. More on this below.
The comments associated with that blog are quite insightful into the mindset of the hardcore Republican fanatics that make any sort of meaningful dialogue impossible. It is that same 30% of the population we see represented almost weekly in the presidential approval rating polls.
Here are some of the more interesting comments that are typical of the level of debate you can expect:
"You weave an interesting tale, but for example the WSJ editorial page is generally recognized as not being a right wing leaning set of content leading to a false impression by you."
"NBC and MSNBC, owned by GE, is about the most liberal media outlet of the bunch, but it’s by a razor-thin margin. As for Turner (CNN), CBS (Viacom) and ABC(Disney), fuggedaboutit. They’ll learn their lesson someday--Americans are tuning out all of their Liberal cr*p in record numbers."
"...even Libby’s conviction was injust, bogus and is being appealed."
"Scooter Libby--It was a kangaroo court and Libby was charged for something someone else did, i.e. it was Armitrage who "outed" Plame to the Enemedia. He was "convicted" of having a bad memory and for being a Bushie Republican. Plame was no undercover operative. She was a suburban soccer mom of twins and her life was never threatened for a second.
She and her hubby and the other Leftist gremlins in the CIA and State set up the trip and the whole bogus story to "get" President Bush. They are such liars and should be shot for treason! (or at least interned in Camp Gitmo for the duration of the war)"
"Clenis was impeached for suborning perjury and obstructing justice."
"President Bush is an honorable man."
"She was compromised when she told her married lover (Mr Wilson) she was a super-secret-spy in bed on their third date."
"As for Valerie Plame, she was an ANALYST, not a field operative. It was common knowledge around DC, long before we ever heard of her, that this is what she did for a living. Why do you think it is the whole "outing" thing has been quietly dropped, with NO ONE indicted, let alone convicted, over the matter. And her husband Joe Wilson, a Gore boy if ever there was one, lied. Saddam DID send emissaries to Niger in an attempt to buy yellowcake. The Nigerians turned him down, but he DID make the attempt."
Amazing isn't it? Look at the depth of penetration the Republican talking points have in the commenters. Don't you wish we have such message control? They even hold internally inconsistant views (such as, the very same crimes Clinton supposedly was impeached for, perjury and obstruction of justice, are not real crimes when considering the Libby case).
I happen to work with one of those "30%"-ters that believe Bush can do no wrong. I have ceased having any sort of political conversation with him at work, because the facts are useless. He will attack the source of the material ("Oh, yeah, sure, of course the New York Times would say that, they so want to make Bush look bad.") or he will lapse into the favorite dissembling response of conservatives everywhere: "Yeah, well, Clintion...". Or he will made personal attacks. All of these tactics are readily observed in the comment section I linked to previously. It poisons the discussion.
But here is just a short list of what I think Republicans must believe just to get through the day:
Greatest. President. Ever.
Saddam was the most dangerous man in the world.
Saddam helped plan 9/11.
Saddam and Al Qaeda were working together.
There were WMDs in Iraq.
He hid the WMDs in Syria.
It was never about WMDs.
She sent him to Nigeria.
She wasn’t covert.
Libby was only convicted for perjury, which isn’t even a crime.
Perjury is sufficient to impeach a President.
But Clinton did it!
Liberals are unpatriotic and hate America.
Tom Delay: Patriotic American.
Liberals are hypocritical, soulless, Godless pagans.
The media doesn’t show all the good things in Iraq.
There is no civil war.
Shite Iran is equipping both sides of the warring sectarian factions.
Habeas what-as?
There are no strong conservative voices in the media.
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Joe Scarborough, and pretty much anyone on FOX News are the voices of our generation.
All life is precious.
Bomb them to the Stone Age.
What ones can you add? Seriously, with all that cognitive dissonance buzzing in their collective ears, how can they hear anything when more than two of them are present in the same room?